MAPUA hardly broke a sweat in taking its sixth straight win as it pulled away early before rolling to a 28-point, 71-43 rout of San Sebastian to close out their cross-group run in the NCAA Season 102 men's basketball tournament on Monday at the Filoil Center in San Juan.
The Cardinals went on a 27-8 third quarter to turn a nine-point halftime lead to a commanding 60-32 lead entering the fourth period to all but put away the Stags.
Cyrus Cuenco continued his hot streak for the Cardinals, leading that third quarter attack to finish with 25 points as Mapua improved to 6-3 after losing their first three games of the tournament.
Now the goal is carrying their momentum over when they return to their group.
"Happy but not contented. We want to be more cohesive. We want to have that maturity and confidence going into the next round in our group," coach Chito Victolero said.
"Yes, yung goal namin na at least sana three out of five (maipanalo namin), binless kami na five out of five which is good for us going into the next phase of the tournament."
Cuenco himself outscored the entire Stags in the third quarter after firing 17 points in the period including a hot stretch where he scored 10 straight to put the game out of reach with more than a qurter to go.
Yam Concepcion had another defensive masterclass with 11 points, 10 rebunds, three steals and a block.
The Stags remain winless after nine tries as they simply didn't have it the entire game, shooting just 25 percent from the field while having just seven assists to 15 turnovers.
Kent Bacani led the Stags with 12 points.
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